“Thanks for the memories!”

Posted by | No Comments | Read More / Add Comment

We recently took the plunge and adopted Facebook’s new Timeline for our page.  We’re still adjusting to the changes and while some features have already been super fun and useful (like the cover photo and the ability to direct message with fans) others are things we hope Facebook will eventually change (like the fact that all our fan posts are shrunken down to fit in a little box in the upper right-hand corner – no more big fans posts and pictures when you come to the page – we do NOT like that!)

But back to the positives.  Another neat thing about Timeline for businesses is that it allows you to go back and add company milestones to your page, essentially painting a picture of the company history.  This is something we’ve starting playing with (see our 9th Birthday Milestone below) and will be adding more fun B3 facts over the next couple of weeks.

B3 Timeline Milestone

While we were brainstorming moments to add however, we realized that a huge part of our company history and our journey is closely intertwined with our customers.  So many of you have watched us grow over the years and been really the biggest part of why we have succeeded and grown as we have.

It’s for this reason that we ask you to submit your favorite B3 memories to be added as company milestones to our Timeline.  These could be anything from the first class you took with Rebeca to your first order, a great customer service interaction or conquering that weave you struggled with for so long.  It could also be the first time you made a chainmaille jewelry sale or were inspired to teach your own class using what you learned as a B3 community member.

To submit your memory, send an email to [email protected] with…

  • Your first and last name; for privacy’s sake you can choose to just use your last initial instead of your full last name
  • The date of the memory (or your closest estimate)
  • A description of the memory in a nutshell (200 words or less)
  • An image that can accompany the memory if you have one.

We’ll add our favorite submissions to our Timeline.  We look forward to traveling down memory lane with you!

Project Ideas for our New Toggles

Posted by | 3 Comments | Read More / Add Comment

We recently added a bunch of new toggles (mostly sterling silver) to our findings page.  Knowing that sometimes it can be difficult to know what toggle will compliment your project, we have compiled some suggestions for each of these new beautiful finishing touches below. We hope you find these tips useful and encourage you to share how you use these new toggles by leaving a comment or posting a photo of your piece to our page on Facebook!


Sterling Silver Flower Toggle


This toggle is small enough to compliment thinner weaves and really compliments Japanese weaves as it mimics the visible full circles seen in the weave.  Rebeca recommends using it for with Japanese weaves that aren’t too wide such as our Japanese Flower Bracelet or the Mini Lace or 2-row Japanese Lace variations of our Japanese Lace project (supply lists for these variations are available on at the bottom of the project page.)


Golden Sun Toggle


This toggle makes a statement and might work best as a feature on an otherwise simple piece. The mixed finish compliments pieces that combine Sterling Silver and Gold-filled rings like the Helm Wave variation on pg 103 of CHAINED.


Sterling Sliver Woven Hexagon Toggle

This toggle is very subtle and especially complimentary to any piece that has angled edges such as Zig Zag Lancelot. Rebeca also suggests using it to finish möbiused pieces such as Möbiused Rosettes since the toggle looks like two intertwined shapes.


Nordic Sterling Silver Toggle

This toggle is substantial and needs a hefty weave to hang on to it. Try using it with a cuff like Dragonscale or possibly an elf sheet.


Sterling Silver Scallop Toggle

This toggle is large but quite light and compliments many weaves. Because of its size and weight, it works well to finish necklaces in a fancy way without putting too much weight on the neck or spinning the piece around.


Sunflower Sterling Silver Toggle

This is another great toggle for finishing pieces that have angled edges. Rebeca recommends using it to finish Zig Zag Byzantine, Zig Zag Lancelot or a Staggered Japanese Lace piece.


Bronze Squiggle Toggle

This toggle is a lovely way to finish any piece made with bronze rings, especially spiral pieces or pieces between about 1/2″ and 1″ wide (1.25 cm – 2.5 cm). Try it with Helm Wave, Euro 4-in-1 or Double Spiral.


Sunburst Sterling Silver Toggle

This toggle looks great with many weaves but is especially complimentary to coiled projects since its grooves mimic the coils. We really love it with our Coiled Bracelet and Coiled Crystals projects.

 

Audit Bloopers

Posted by | 2 Comments | Read More / Add Comment

Rebeca’s posts about preparing for and surviving an I.R.S. audit have been getting a little more exposure lately thanks to the Chicago Artists Resource.  We’re really glad that CAR found these posts interesting and we hope that some local artists have found them useful.  Revisiting these posts, we found ourselves not only breathing another sigh of relief that the process is over and done with, but reminiscing about some of the lighter moments of the whole thing.

We were inspired to put together this post of audit bloopers to prove once and for all that the I.R.S. is in fact, human (and that you can find funny moments in almost any situation.)

You’re being audited … wait, not yet … nope, not yet either … maybe soon …

by Rebeca Mojica
The morning of the audit was here. I had called the agent the day before to confirm, and hadn’t heard back, but didn’t think much of it.  I was ready! “Bring it, IRS!” I said (literally, out loud), as I gathered all the items I’d prepped for the audit.

Here’s where my story became atypical. A woman came into the studio 30 minutes before the scheduled appointment, showed identification, introduced herself as someone from the IRS and asked: “Did your agent call to cancel?”

Um … no …

Turns out my agent broke her wrist and was therefore unable to come in.  (See? What’s more human than a broken bone?) The woman who was here instead was her supervisor. She wasn’t sure if the agent had canceled or not, so she came by just in case. “As long as I’m here,” she said, “I can do some preliminary interview questions.” That was fine by me. She asked me many questions that she already knew the answer to (like my name, my business name, etc). I wondered if they are trained to ask baseline questions so that if you lie later, they might be better able to detect such deception. I was also fascinated by the fact that she took her notes longhand. Somehow, I figured the IRS folks would use those same tablet devices that the census folks use.

To her credit, she did spend a lot of time apologizing for the unexpected rescheduling. “Well,” I said, “you probably know that the IRS doesn’t have a very good reputation. And stuff like this doesn’t help. Because, of course, you know I’m going to go blog all about my experiences.” Yes, I really did say that. But I said it politely, not with snark. And then she apologized some more. She was actually quite nice, and I did call her later with a question about my personal taxes (unrelated to the audit), and she went above and beyond to take care of the issue.  (Human again.)

Toward the beginning of our interview, the supervisor looked right at me and said, “So I should tell you the reason why you are being audited is that our agent is going through training and you are her training case.” !!! “Now of course,” she hurried to add, probably in an attempt to reassure me after watching my eyes open in disbelief, “the IRS randomly selects a certain number of businesses to be audited each year, so you would’ve been part of that pool anyway.” But yep – that’s right, my agent was in training. I was briefly worried that this might make my audit even tougher. I know from leading training sessions in a few industries that sometimes trainees try to really prove they know their stuff, so I thought she might dig super-hard to triumphantly pull something out to show her boss. Hmm, this was an unexpected twist. Several of my friends pointed out that the IRS should be paying me for the audit, since I was essentially helping them with their training program. I didn’t disagree, but I wasn’t going to bring it up with the IRS. 😛

My original agent called a few days later, also apologized, and we rescheduled for a couple weeks later, Monday, July 25. I went back to my life, until Friday the 22nd, during which I pulled out the file bin and the USB stick and reviewed where everything was again.

And then, around 3:30 that Friday, I got a call from the agent. Her wrist hadn’t healed properly, so she was going in for surgery. On Monday. Therefore the audit was postponed. Again. She said she would call me after Labor Day to reschedule.

Labor Day—and in fact, the whole month of September—came and went with no call. I certainly wasn’t going to call the IRS to remind them, so I just laid low. Finally, in October, I received a letter addressed to “Ms. Mojito” apologizing for the delay and requesting that I call to reschedule. My last name is Mojica, and actually, I have accidentally been called Mojito before (possibly due to the awesomeness of auto-correct), but receiving an official letter from the IRS with this salutation was pretty hilarious. (Human moment #301, right?)

After all this craziness, we set the audit for October 26, confirmed the day before, and … third time was the charm.  Phew.

Read Surviving an IRS Audit to see how I fared during the audit itself.

New Jewelry Kits/Instructions + Supply Shopping Lists for Discontinued Kits

Posted by | One Comment | Read More / Add Comment

Scale Barrette chainmaille project

 

As promised, we have begun releasing the first of many new project instructions and kits for 2012.  Last week, we released our first hair accessory kit, “Scale Barrette” by Omni Mee.  Omni has long been an ambassador for B3 and we are so excited to be releasing his project.  We’ve already gotten such great feedback about the design and we can’t wait for you guys to get your pliers on these kits.  (Warning: These cute flowers are kindof addicting – you may end up making enough to wear a new one every day *wink*.)

Elfweave Braid chainmialle project

 

In the coming weeks, we’ll be releasing two highly anticipated projects created by Rebeca. We’ve been sharing some sneak peeks of her Elfweave Braid project on our page on Facebook and people are excited to get their hands on this new weave.  Following the release of Elfweave Braid, we will also release a supplementary variations tutorial with ideas and quick tips for adapting this weave into 4 more projects.

 

Beaded Gridlock Byzantine chainmaille project

 

This month we will also introduce Rebeca’s Beaded Gridlock Byzantine tutorial and kit.  We’ve been teasing this advanced-level project for a while and have been working hard to perfect the instructions – it’s a tricky one!  We’ve got it just right now though and can’t wait to release it later this month.

 

Kit Supply Lists

Click for a larger view.

 

With all these new kit releases comes a need to make some room in our inventory.  We are discontinuing a handful of older kits (don’t worry, we’re still selling the instructions!) and instead offering complete supply lists for these projects.  You can get a preview of what this looks like by visiting any of our FREE tutorial pages or by clicking the image to the left.  You’ll notice a new image that indicates the project is instructions only (clicking the image will still take you to a larger image of the project itself so you can see what you’re getting.)  Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you’ll see a list of all the B3 packs and findings you’ll need to complete the project.

 

As we create more and more projects and revamp the kits section of our website to be more project and class-oriented, you will begin to see more flexible shopping options like this one.  We’ll still carry kits for many projects, but we’ll also include these shopping lists and even class listings for the project right there on the page.  Eventually, we will allow you to add the packs listed in the supply list directly to your cart from the project page and are working on a tool that will add notes to your receipt about what project that pack is used for (we’ve all been in that position of receiving our rings and wondering, “What the heck was I gonna do with these?”)  As we make this transition, we encourage you to share you ideas and feedback about the shopping experience.  We are excited about improving this section of the website and hope you’ll love the final outcome as much as we think you will!

 

Congratulations to February’s Featured Product Contest Winner!

Posted by | One Comment | Read More / Add Comment

Voting for February’s Featured Product of the Month contest is officially closed and the winner as chosen by you is……

 

Chrys M. with their “Deluxe Tarzan Bracelet”!


Congratulations, Chrys! Your creativity has earned you a B3 gift certificate for $25! To claim your prize, please send an email to [email protected].

 


Thanks to all our February contest participants. We are currently accepting submissions for March’s contest. Create something using our size O18 rings – any metal – for your chance to win!

Happy Weaving!